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Friday, March 14, 2014

How To Look Up Land Grants

This database contains bounty land
warrants issued to veterans of the U.S. Revolutionary War between 1789 and
1833, and to veterans of the War of 1812 between 1815 and 1858. It also
contains some related papers of the Revolutionary War warrants that date to as
late as 1880. Bounty land warrants were certificates given to eligible veterans
granting them rights to free land on the public domain.

Historical Background:

During the Revolutionary War the
Continental Congress promised bounty land as an inducement to military service.
For this war and other wars in which the United States engaged during the years
1812-1855, the issuance of bounty land warrants to veterans or their heirs as a
form of reward for service was continued.

The Acts:

The warrants forRevolutionary
Warservice were issued under acts of July 9,
1788, March 3, 1803, and April 15, 1806.

The 1788 act gave free land in the
public domain to officers and soldiers who continued to serve during the
Revolutionary War or, if they were killed, to their representatives or heirs.
The resolution provided that a private or noncommissioned officer would be
entitled to 100 acres of bounty land, an ensign to 150 acres, a lieutenant to
200 acres, a captain to 300 acres, a major to 400 acres, a lieutenant colonel
to 450 acres, a colonel to 500 acres, a brigadier general to 850 acres, and a
major general to 1,100 acres.

A 4,000 square mile tract was
located in the Northwest Territory and was set aside for these land warrants.
This area came to be known as the U.S. Military District of Ohio. Originally
the lands in this district were to be distributed by January 1, 1800. By the
end of 1802 about 14,000 warrants had been issued. However, additional time was
needed to locate warrants and to grant warrants to soldiers with late
applications or uncompleted claims. Congress passed the act of 1803, which was
later amended by the act of 1806, to extend the time limit.

Thefirst
seriesof warrants forWar
of 1812service were issued under acts of
December 24, 1811, January 11, 1812, and May 6, 1812, in which Congress
provided that noncommissioned officers and soldiers serving for 5 years (unless
discharged sooner), or their heirs, would be entitled to 160 acres of land from
the public domain in partial compensation for their military service. Six
million acres of land in the Territories of Michigan, Illinois, and Louisiana
were set aside for this purpose.

Thesecond
seriesresulted from an act of December 10,
1814, by which Congress doubled the acreage offered to soldiers enlisting after
that date. Warrants issued under the act were called Double Bounty Warrants.

About the Revolutionary War
Warrants:

Thefirst
seriesincludes warrants issued under the act
of July 9, 1788 (numbered 1-14220). Most of the warrants from 1-6912 in this
first series were destroyed during the War Department fires in 1800 and 1814.
Beginning with warrant 6913, most of the actual warrants are intact. Those that
are missing are presumed to be lost or not surrendered by the veteran or his
heirs.

Thesecond
seriescomprises warrants issued under the
acts of March 3, 1803, and April 15, 1806. The warrants are numbered from 1-272
under the act of 1803, and continue from 273-2119 under the act of 1806. A
series of 18 additional warrants issued under later acts is also included.

Warrants usually contain the
following information:

Date of issuance

Name and rank of veteran

State from which enlisted

Name of heir or assignee, if
applicable

Note:Warrants
issued at this time were assignable and were often sold by the veteran on the
open market. When this was done a notation on the reverse of the warrant
indicates subsequent transfers of ownership from the veteran to heirs or
assignees.

About the War of 1812
Warrants:

The majority of the records for the
War of 1812 are of original warrants.

Warrants 1-2519 under the act of
1812, and warrants 1-79 under the act of 1814 were detached from the original
volumes. For these warrant numbers, the warrant stub is provided in place of
the original warrant.

Also, the location of warrants
27116-28085 under the act of 1812, and warrants 1077-1101 under the act of 1814
is unknown by NARA. They may have been destroyed. However, copies of warrants
27116-28085 from the Veterans Administration are available on microfilmed prior
their misplacement and are included in this database.

Warrants usually contain the
following information:

Name of veteran

Rank on discharge from service

Company, regiment, and branch of
service

Date warrant was issued

Usually the date the land was
located and the page on which the location is recorded in Abstracts of Military
Bounty Land Warrant Locations

Warrant stubs usually include the following
information:

Warrant number

Name, rank, and regiment of veteran

Date of location and the citation
from the Abstracts of Military Bounty Land Warrant Locations

Note:Warrants
issued for War of 1812 service could not be transferred or assigned to another
person except through inheritance.

Manuscript Indexes:

Images of manuscript indexes
created by the U.S. government for both the Revolutionary War and War of 1812
warrants are included as part of this database.

The Revolutionary War warrant
indexes for the first series are called“Index to
the Register of Army Land Warrants”and the“Register
of Army Land Warrants per Acts of 1796 and 1799.”

TheIndex
to the Registercontains entries arranged
alphabetically by the first letter of the surname of the warrant holder who
registered and located his warrant on land in the U.S. Military District of
Ohio between 1799 and 1805. Entries give the warrant number, the number of
acres shown on the warrant, and the page number in the register where the name
of the veteran or of the warrant holder is cited.

TheRegister
of Army Land Warrantscontains
entries arranged chronologically by date of warrant registration from April 11,
1799, to March 20, 1805. Entries give the registration date, the name of the
patentee, and the name and the service rank of the warrantee.

The Revolutionary War warrant
indexes for the second series (issued under the acts of 1803 and 1806) are
called“Index to Revolutionary War Military
Bounty Land Warrants Issued Under the Acts of 1803 and 1806”and
the“Register of Military Land Warrants
Presented at the Treasury for Locating and Patenting, 1804-1835.”

Entries in theIndex
to Land Warrantsusually indicate the veteran’s name,
warrant number, and the act under which the warrant was issued, and may contain
a cross-reference notation to the scrip application number.

Entries in theRegister
of Military Land Warrantsare arranged
chronologically by date of warrant registration, 1804-1835. Each entry provides
the registration date, the name of the person presenting the warrant for
registration, the warrant number; the name and the service rank of the
warrantee; the number of acres shown on the warrant; the location of the
warrant by lot, township, and range in the U.S. Military District of Ohio; the
date on which a patent for the land was received; and to whom the patent was
delivered.

There are four manuscript indexes
which apply to both series of theWar of
1812warrants. These indexes are:

Alphabetical Index of Missouri
Patentees- Entries arranged alphabetically by
name of patentee and include date of patent, warrant number, warrantee’s
military rank, company in which served, and legal description of the land.

Index of Arkansas Patentees-
Entries arranged alphabetically by first letter of surname of patentee and
contain GLO patent book citation, legal land description, and warrant number.

Index of Patentees Under the Act
of 1842- Entries are arranged alphabetically
by first two letters of surname of patentee and include GLO patent book
citation, legal land description, and warrant number.

How to Use This Database:

The following information has been
keyed from the manuscript indexes just described and can be used to search this
database in the above search template:

Name of veteran/warrantee

Warrant Year

Warrant Number

The Warrant Number has also been keyed
from the actual warrant record. In most cases, performing a search through the
search template will yield results with links to images of both the index and
the warrant, identified by the corresponding Warrant Numbers.

You may also browse this record collection
and locate a particular individual by first finding them in one of the indexes
and then using the Warrant Number and other information listed in the index to
locate them in the appropriate set of warrant records.

Not all individuals who were granted
military land warrants will be found in this collection. Warrants that were
never surrendered by the veterans, their heirs, or assignees are not included
in these records.

Abbreviations and
Translations:

The following abbreviations and
latin words may be found in these records:

*Description information taken from
the following sources. For more information on these record collections, please
consult these two references.

U.S. Revolutionary War Bounty
Land Warrants Used in the U.S. Military District of Ohio and Related Papers
(Acts of 1788, 1803, 1806), NARA Descriptive Pamphlet, M829. Washington,
D.C.: National Archives, 1972.